Identifying high-throughput, noncoding regulatory variations

A fundamental objective of genetics is pinpointing individual alleles that influence phenotypic traits. In this issue of Cell, Tewhey et al. (pp. 1519–1529) and Ulirsch et al. (pp. 1530–1545) identify high-throughput, noncoding regulatory variations that are causal for human traits and disease susceptibility. The cover, in the form of an Escher tessellation, combines a classic example of phenotypic variation with Mendel’s pea flower, as well as the difficulty of identifying a single mutation responsible for a phenotype (red flower) when it is intermixed with many variants of similar appearance.